Ambitious vision to develop Milton Park
Suzanne Lovell
The 2040 Vision for the 300-acre park near Didcot, masterplanned by designers and architects Perkins+Will, is intended to create a ‘neighbourhood-style’ campus where local residents and businesses can compete in sporting events and take advantage of new cycle and walking routes, and where a new autonomous bus service will operate.
It will mean increasing floorspace from three million sq ft to four million sq ft with new highly flexible accommodation, all within the current boundaries.
Thames Tap publisher, UK Property Forums, teamed up with MEPC, which manages the park, to hold the launch of the 2040 Vision document on Thursday, May 23 at one of the few vacant buildings on Milton Park, 141 Park Drive.
Perkins+Will associate Peter Baird, told delegates the vision proposes new neighbourhood centres which will encourage people to spend more time on the park and help smooth out peak traffic flows. More than 1,100 people were consulted in the process of creating it.
He told the meeting: “Milton Park starts to become more focussed around walkable neighbourhoods with clear gateways. We are talking about improved mobility choices, we are talking about flexible space, we are talking about providing amenities that bring people out of their buildings and into a community hub.
“As such we are talking about something that has a much more sustainable pattern of growth for employment locations within Oxfordshire.”
He said the new laboratory space would be ‘attuned to the growing entrepreneurship and small business markets’.
Veronica Reynolds, specialist travel advisor for Milton Park, said there had already been successful work to reduce single-occupancy car journeys and, with 33 per cent of the current 9,100 workers living in or near Didcot, cycling and walking was to encouraged.
One of the first moves will be…….read the full article here.
Source: Thames Valley Property No 164 (tvproperty.co.uk)
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image: https://www.miltonpark.co.uk/2040vision